What Is Techno Again?

Walking to the convention center

My participation in the annual pilgrimage known as San Diego Comic-Con was filled with firsts. I flew on a plane for the first time—cross-country, from Pittsburgh to Phoenix to Orange County, California. My first full day in California burst at the seams with geek craziness, bombarding me with an overload of sensory information at attending not only my first ever comic convention, but the biggest one in the world. On top of comic, video game, cosplay, and movie heaven in the midst of gorgeous and breezy San Diego, I met for the first time a wonderful group of friends whom I’ve been writing alongside on the Girls Entertainment Network for months.

After a long day of traveling and suffering mild effects of jet lag, I headed down streets named as letters, markets, and islands, and soon approached the mind-bending colossus known as the San Diego convention center. Flyers for panels and events flew my way as I walked into the press area, awake only due to adrenaline and sheer excitement drenched in surrealism. Thankfully it didn’t take long to snag my pass, and after walking the floor open-mouthed for awhile, I greeted a friendly duo at the Telltale Games booth—right across from the very noisy Activision extravaganza—who, taking me to a corner of the floor, proceeded with bright enthusiasm to show off Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures and Tales of Monkey Island. After over a half hour of Sherlock Holmes (DOS-style) nostalgia and laughing over the possibilities of root beer, I wandered the floor before locating my first panel.

Outside the Activision booth

Rantz Hoseley’s Longbox Comics demonstration had me excited ever since he stumbled across my pros and cons and piracy-focused look at his creation. Afterwards, we chatted and he let me snap a great shot of him in front of the window (trust me, it’s a good one, folks).

The easy-going and impressive Longbox panel did nothing to prepare me for the madness that would be the premiere of Assassin’s Creed II. Going in with skepticism contributed mostly to my sour reception of the admittedly innovative yet repetitive first game, my actual reaction to its sequel was quite a different monster. Afterward, I walked right past Felicia Day—and had a total geek moment.

The cloudy skies and mugginess vanished, leaving sun, wind, and palm trees to welcome me as I trudged a quarter of a mile to the off-site Konami event to demo a game that had me lying awake in anticipation the night before: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. A cool drink and pleasant faces welcomed me in from the heat, and I was given full reign to sit down with the Wii title. To follow up, I had a fantastic interview session. I might have made it back to the convention center later than I had anticipated, but the longer stay was worth every second. They could tell I was a fan!

Hall H stood like a shining light, beckoning me to the premiere of the comic-to-movie adaptation, Kick-Ass. We fans of the comic weren’t disappointed! To top off the night, I co-snagged an interview with Scott Pilgrim creator, Bryan Lee O’Malley.

Artist Rick Basaldua and I

A group of us GEN writers and artist Rick Basaldua finished our first day with a meal at the SyFy-themed Carpe Diem, adorned and decked out like the town of Eureka‘s cafe itself. In between an overpriced but delicious chicken Caesar salad called the Cylon—which amused me to no end, considering I can now say I ate a Cylon—and my first taste of PinkBerry, we spotted a couple of Eureka stars across the room, sitting down to enjoy the atmosphere. We left them alone, but one thing’s for sure. I was definitely not in Pennsylvania anymore.

More in-depth write-ups of the panels and interviews mentioned will be coming soon!

Melissa, Mandy, Ashley, Meagan, William, Traycee, Rick, and I at Carpe Diem